Just a simple reflection on the page of the Gospel we have heard.
Today Jesus teaches that he himself is like a treasure who finds Jesus is so
happy that's ready to give up all things.
But this is not the case.
This is not the case.
This gift of the treasure, very beautiful, hidden, very precious, we can compare to
the religious vocation.
When we had this beautiful gift of religious vocation, we, with joy, have given
up all things, and started to follow Jesus.
It is the greatest honor to follow Jesus.
It is the greatest thing in our life to understand that all the rest has no value.
It is the greatest thing in our life to understand that all the rest has no value.
It is the greatest thing in our life to understand that all the rest has no value.
It is the greatest thing in our life to understand that all the rest has no value.
Compared to gift of vocation.
And those who have received this gift, they have to be so happy, and not only for one day or at the beginning,
but throughout all their lives, always happy, always happier, every day more.
But sometimes it's not like this.
Because it seems as we put certain dusts on the ground, and we don't see the dusts.
Because it seems as we put certain dusts on the ground, and we don't see the dusts.
But sometimes it is given up entirely.
But sometimes it is given up entirely.
Because of this we trust on the treasures we have found.
So life, religious life, but also Christian life, becomes not so as the treasures were shown in the beginning.
So life, religious life, but also Christian life, becomes not so as the treasures were shown in the beginning.
We follow other idols.
We prefer other things.
What we have given up in the beginning,
we followed them.
after we have found the treasure. Jesus does not shine anymore as at the beginning
of the religious life, of Christian life. It seems that we are tired to follow him.
There are some who give up even their vocation because they were not constant
in following what Jesus is teaching us as Christians and as religious.
Religious vocation, Christian vocation, is very, very beautiful.
But if we leave it, as Jesus tells us,
religious must follow him, taking up their cross.
It means to conform.
Day after day,
day after day, to his life, like Saint Francis, like Saint Massimilian,
to conform ourselves to Jesus as the most beautiful things, as the greatest reality.
But it demands also strong will.
It demands a life of penance, a life of prayer, a life of renunciation.
But the more we go on,
and follow this way, the more the joy increases, every day more.
Like the saints, like Saint Francis, Saint Massimilian, all Franciscans, saints especially,
conforming ourselves to Jesus every day.
This is the secret.
The moment we do not start following him in the way he is proposing to us, that's the moment we are, our life is going to end.
The moment we do not start following him in the way he is proposing to us, that's the moment we are, our life is going to end.
Our faith is going down.
Our love also diminishes.
And we found ourselves not with the treasure anymore, but with other things.
The things of the world which are the beginning, we put aside in order to follow Jesus.
So this is the great lesson that Jesus wants to teach us today.
Let us thank him
through our Blessed Mother.
For the gift we have received.
It is really, indeed, very, very great, the gift of vocation.
We must take care.
We must protect this gift.
We must appreciate every day more.
We must love our vocation.
So to intensifying our prayers and sacrifices,
So to intensifying our prayers and sacrifices,
and especially the recording and the prayer, we must daily celebrate this.
and especially the recording and the prayer, we must daily celebrate this.
So to intensifying our prayers and sacrifices,
recourse to Mary. She is the one giving us the vocation, the gift of vocation. She
is the one protecting us every day. We must have recourse often to her, praying
her that we might be perseverant up to the end. Let us put this desire of ours
today in the hands of the Immaculate that she might may protect us and
defend us against evils in our daily vocation and help us to continue to
persevere up to the end. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.